Printing and inking apparatus and method with sheet or web feeding means



May 5, 19 70 R D. BROWN ETAL. 3,509,818 I PRINTING AND INKI NG APPARATUS AND METHOD WITH SHEET OR WEB FEEDING MEANS Filed Feb. 19. 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ie-Q 3| 37 R. DEXTER BROWN LESTER GIDGE F292. BY

ATTORNEYS May 5, 1970 RD. BROWN ET AL 3,509,818

PRINTING AND INKING APPARATUS AND METHOD WITH SHEET OR WEB FEEDING MEANS Filed Feb. 19. 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig. 3. 62 37 9| as 86 I02 1 us 2 I/IOI 55 A 95 08 0 INVENTOR. I04 98 R. DEXTER BROWN LESTER GIDGE 2 6 I06 24 O '07 PM PP/.4440.

'2' H8 9 I? ATTORNEYS United States Patent US. Cl. 101-295 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A job lot printer automatically feeds each sheet of a plurality of sheets successively up to a vertically reciprocating printing bed by means of a horizontally reciprocating carriage. The carriage includes feed fingers which enter register apertures in each form, may include a unidirectional rotating sheet feed roll, and includes a resiliently mounted ink applicator roll which re-inks the head while in motion. The ink applicator roll is re-inked at the retraction end of the stroke of the carriage, from a stationary nip reservoir ink supply, while in motion, and ink distributor means assures a thin coating of ink on the roll. The printing bed plate is resilient and yieldable and the ink applicator roll is positively rotated as it travels over the type and while it engages the distributor means.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION There are many patents on printing devices including large scale rotary presses, large scale flat bed presses, and the like, all of which relate to costly equipment out of the reach of the average small lot printer. There are also many patents on manual and automatic stamping devices for applying codes or other indicia to labels or containers, the perfection of the imprint not being critical so long as the imprint is clearly readable. This invention lies in between these categories in that it is for the purpose of providing a small print shop with a job lot press equal in quality to larger presses, but less costly, and equal in simplicity to automatic stamps, but higher in quality of printing. Thus the printing apparatus of the invention can be used to apply a customer's name to each of a roll, or stack, of preprinted register forms in lots such as five hundred and to produce a high quality, printed product bearing no resemblance to a rubber-stamped imprint.

It has heretofore been proposed to provide small job print devices in which a print head follows an oscillating path, a carriage feeds successive sheets up to the print position and an ink pad is moved, manually by mechanical linkage to re-ink the print head. For example, in US. Patent 3,101,049 to Huppert of Aug. 20, 1963, a pantograph mounted carriage, having a print head on one arm and a stamp pad on a parallel arm is manually pivoted to feed, print nd re-ink with each cycle. However, it has been found that such pivoted linkage and oscillating parts make it difficult to achieve repeated clear impression, evenly inked, unsmudged printed products.

In this invention, therefore, the printing head is arranged to move on a vertical rectilinear path relative to a novel yieldable bed plate so that there is no looseness of motion and an even printing occurs. The ink source is of the fountain nip roll type, in a fixed location above the plane of the sheets to be printed, with ink distributor means preferably including pivoted distributor roll to assure an even thin film of ink. A horizontally and rectilinearly movable carriage moves back and forth between ink source and printing head, to feed sheets individually and successively to the printing zone, while also advancing an ink applicator roll from the distributor roll to the print head to coat the type with a carefully controlled film of 3,509,818 Patented May 5, 1970 ink. The ink applicator roll is yieldably mounted to ink the head as both carriage and head are in motion, and the various ink rolls are drivingly rotated to avoid scufiing and uneven deposit.

It is a principal object of the invention to provide a low cost, rugged, printing device which is automatic in feeding single sheets from the top of a stack, or in feeding a folded, or rolled, continuous web of sheets, up to a printing zone, and which prints each successive sheet clearly, evenly and without smudging.

Another object of the invention is to provide a movable carriage with pivoted sheet pick up fingers, which enter perforations in each successive sheet of a web of sheets to advance the same to a printing zone, but which are lifted over the bed plate on the forward stroke to avoid damage thereto and are lifted over the sheets on the rearward stroke to avoid marking carbon manifold sheets.

A further object of the invention is to provide an ink applicator roll for re-inking the type on a vertically movable printing head, which roll is power rotated in contact with an ink distributor roll along the rearward portion of the stroke of its carriage and is power rotated in contact with the type along the forward portion of the stroke of its carriage.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the claims, the description of the drawings and from the drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of the printing apparatus of the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a side elevation thereof, with parts broken away for clarity.

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged diagrammatic fragmentary view, in side elevation showing the rearward portion of the carriage stroke with means for feeding individual unconnected sheets.

FIGURE 4 is a view similar to FIGURE 3 showing the forward portion of the carriage stroke.

FIGURE 5 is an end elevation on the scale of FIG- URES 1 and 2.

FIGURE 6 is a further enlarged, fragmentary side elevation of the ink applicator roll and drive therefor.

FIGURE 7 is a fragmentary end elevation of the device shown in FIGURE 6, on line 7-7 of FIGURE 6, and

FIGURE 8 is a fragmentary detail view in side elevaiton of the fountain nip rolls and pivoted distributor roll of the invention.

As shown in the drawings, the printing apparatus 30 of the invention includes a sheet supporting surface, or platform, 31, extending in a horizontal plane from a sheet supply zone 32, through an ink supplyzone 33, a printing zone 34, to a sheet discharge zone 35.

As best shown in FIGURES 1, 2 and 5, the apparatus 30 is primarily intended for the purpose of clearly printing the name, address and other local information on preprinted register forms which are conventionally supplied in a continuous folded web of well known type, but which could be in roll form if desired. A stack 36, of such forms 37 is mounted in the receptacle 38 in the sheet supply zone 32, the receptacle 38 thus constituting a top feed magazine from which the leading, or topmost form 37 may be placed on the surface 31 for advance to the printing zone 34. Each register form, or sheet, 37, is connected to the succeeding form by a perforated line 39, usually at the fold, each form usually includes an upper and lower sheet which may be separated by a carbon, and each form includes a pair of register apertures 41 and 42, near the 3 of vertical support posts 45 and 46 slidable in a fixed,

vertical rectilinear path in guides 47 and 48 mounted below the plane of surface 31. The posts 45 and 46 with the printing head 44 are moved from lower printing position (FIGURE 3) to upper re-inking position (FIG- URES 2 and 4) along a fixed path by the cranks 49 and pivoted links 51, and the head 43 is yieldably and resiliently mounted on the posts 45 and 46 by the coil springs, such as 52. The type 53 is mounted in a, detachable chase of well known type for easy replacement, and is in parallelism with the plane of surface 31 at a predetermined level when the head 43 is in upper retracted position at the top of its stroke. At the bottom of the printing stroke, the type 53 rests on the form or sheet 37 and the posts 45 and 46 then exert spring pressure, through the springs 52, on the head to resiliently imprint the sheet under predeterminned spring pressure.

The printing means 43 also includes yieldable bed plate means 54 in the printing zone 34, in the form of a detachable plate 55 inset in the surface 31 in the path of the type 53 and under the plane of the sheet 37 to be printed. Bed plate 55 includes a thin lower layer 56 of backing fabric, such as canvas, an adhered intermediate, thin layer 57 of resilient, yieldable material, such as rubber, and an adhered, thin upper layer 58 of hard sheet material, such as cardboard. The hard layer 58 thus assures that the sheet 37 will be firmly and evenly supported during printing while the rubber layer 57 permits slight yielding to compensate for any slight tilt or imperfect level of the type 53.

SHEET FEED MEANS The sheet feed means 61 of the invention includes a carriage 62 movable along a horizontal, rectilinear, path at a spaced distance above the surface 31, on a pair of support rods 63 and 64, each fixed at one end to the rearward frame piece 65 and at the other end to one of the forwardly located blocks 66 or 67. Carriage 62 consists of a pair of sleeves, each bored to receive one of the rods and connected across the machine by the transverse rod 68. The carriage is movable by means of the link 69, pivoted lever 71, link 72 and crank arm 73 from the rearward, or retracted position shown in FIGURE 3, in the sheet supply zone 32, through zones 33 and 34 to the forward position in the sheet discharge zone 35 shown in FIGURE 4 and FIGURE 1.

A pair of feed fingers, such as 74, are each pivoted intermediate thereof at 75 on the transverse rod 68, with the lower portion terminating in a tip 76 adapted to enter one of the register apertures 41 or 42 of each successive sheet 37 to advance the sheet. Each tip 76 rides in a longitudinal slot 77 in surface 31, so that it is below the plane of the sheet, or form, to assure that it engages on the trailing edges of each sheet of the form, defining the aperture. An upward curve 78 in each slot 77 lifts the finger tip 76 just in advance of the bed plate to prevent wear thereon. In addition, the upper portion of each finger 74 carries a roller cam follower 79, the follower 79 riding in the upper track 81 of a double cam track until reaching the down curve 82 therein, which lift the tip 76 above the level of the bed plate 55 for the final portion of the forward stroke of the carriage. An automatically operable switch, or gate, 83 directs the cam follower 79 onto the lower track 84 of the double cam track to lift the tip 76 out of contact with the just advanced sheet 37 on the rearward stroke of the carriage to prevent carbon mark logs on manifold carbon type forms 37. When beyond the rearward end of the cam track, and when the tip 76 drops into the next set of register apertures, the follower 79' is raised to the correct height to enter track 81 and repeat the cycle.

The feed fingers 74 travel through a stroke equal in length to the length of the forms 37 and successively extract succeeding blanks from the magazine when folded or rolled in continuous web form. However, the device of this invention may also be used with individual, unconnected sheets 37, in a stack 85 as shown in FIGURE 3. A friction faced roll 86 is freely rotatable unidirectionally on a shaft 87, carried at the end of a bar 38 connected to the carriage 62, the roll 86 being provided with a one way clutch 89 of any well known type. When the carriage 62 is at the rearward end of its stroke, with the finger tips 76 in the apertures 41 and 42 of a sheet 37, the roll 86 is resting on the leading edge portion of the topmost sheet 37 in the top feed sheet magazine means 91. As the carriage advances from the sheet supply zone 32 to the discharge zone 35, the fingers 74 feed a sheet to printing position while the unidirectional roll 86 frictionally en gages and slides the next successive sheet up to finger engagement position. Upon the return stroke, the fingers ride rearwardly above the sheet being printed and the roll 86 rolls freely back over the sheet it has advanced to engage the next topmost sheet. A power actuated platform 92, of a type well known in presses, progressively raises the stack 85 to bring the successive top sheets up to the level of surface 31 by means of a screw threaded post 93, rack and pawl or the like.

INK SUPPLY MEANS The ink supply means 94 (FIGURE 8), of the invention is a stationary ink source to avoid difficulties encountered in prior art devices, wherein a pad must be continually resupplied with ink by stopping the machine and the pad must be moved up to the printing head, thereby possibly causing spillage. As shown, means 94 is mounted on the rear frame piece 65 (FIGURE 1), above the plane of the sheet path and surface 31, and is of the nip reservoir or fountain roll type. The ink 95 is less viscous and more fiowable than conventional ink, substantially equal in viscosity to a heavy oil, and is absorbed rapidly by the paper to avoid smudging. This is accomplished by thinning it out prior to application on the type 53 into a very ghin, uniform coating which quickly penetrates and quickly r1es.

A pair of hard faced rolls 96 and 97, of metal or the like, form a nip 98 therebetween, the throat of the nip forming the ink reservoir 99 by means of a pair of shaped nylon end pieces such as 101, which seal the reservoir during rotation of the rolls under pressure of a leaf spring 102 (FIGURE 8). A metered coating of ink is carried around each roll in the direction of the arrows and back into reservoir 99. An ink delivery roll 103, having a soft absorbent face, is mounted below the nip rolls, with a gap 104 therebetween, the lower face 105 of roll 103 being substantially in the same horizontal plane with the type 53 in the retracted position of printing head 44. Ink distributor means preferably in the form of a small diameter ink distributor roll 106 is carried on the end of an arm 107 pivoted at 108 and having a roller cam follower 109 at the other end. Follower 109 is biased by spring 111 into contact with the cam 112 fast to shaft 113 carrying gear 114. Gear 114 engages gear 115 which through power train 116 causes rolls 96, 97 and 103 to rotate in synchronization. The pivoted distributor roll 106 is undriven, freely rotatable and provided with a friction face of rubber so that it moves back and forth between the hard face of nip roll 97 and the soft face of delivery roll 103 to transfer ink thereto. The cam motion is such that roll 106 may rotate only 30-40 angularly in picking up a relatively thick ink deposit from roll 97, but may rotate several revolutions in applying coating to roll 103,

thereby spreading, evening, and thinning the coating into the desired film.

INK APPLICATOR MEANS The ink applicator means 117 includes an ink applicator roll 118, having a soft face 119 and freely rotatable with its shaft 121 in the arms 122 of brackets 123 pivoted on carriage 62. The arms 122 are spring biased by springs to urge the roll 118 into upward position, but the roll is resiliently yieldable downwardly. As the carriage 62 advances through the printing zone 34, under the retracted printing head 44, the roll 118 engages the type 53 to roll across the same while applying a thin film of ink thereto. Similarly, as the carriage 62 moves through the ink supply zone 33, under the delivery roll 103, rotating on its fixed axis, the roll 118 receives a thin film of ink as it is rotated by contact with roll 103.

T o assure a uniform thin film of ink on the type 53, a gear 124 on the shaft 121 of ink applicator roll 118 engages a gear 125 on the shaft 126 of ink delivery roll 103, so that roll 118 is power rotated in the ink suppl zone. Similarly, another gear 130 on shaft 121 of roll 118 engages a curved gear rack 127 on the printing head 44 as the roll advances through the printing zone so that roll 118 rotatably engages the type 53 and does not scuff, or mis-deposit during application. To further even out the pressure of the roll 118 on the type 53, a pair of smoothfaced rolls such as 129 are each fast to an opposite end of shaft 121 of applicator roll 118 and engage smooth, longitudinally extending tracks such as 131 mounted on printing head 44, thereby preventing any tilt of the roll 118. The gear rack 127 and tracks 131 are mounted on head 44 by means of springs 132 to yield resiliently upwardly as they engage the corresponding parts of the downwardly yieldable ink applicator roll so that ink application may take place as both the carriage and head are moving along their respective paths.

The drive means 133 of the apparatus includes the electric motor 134, speed reducing means 135 and the drive pulley 136 fast on the main drive shaft 137. Drive shaft 137 actuates the crank arm 73 which moves the carriage 62, drives a sprocket 138 on the shaft 139, which actuates crank arm 49, moving the printing head and through sprocket 141, drives the power train 116 of the ink supply rolls. Thus all of the moving parts are driven in synchronization.

What is claimed is: 1. Printing apparatus for automatically and successively imprinting each sheet of a plurality of sheets, said sheets each having register apertures therein, said ap paratus comprising a sheet supporting surface extending in a horizontal plane from a sheet supply zone through an ink supply zone and printing zone to a sheet discharge. zone;

printing means in said printing zone, said means including a type-carrying printing head and support post means moving said head in a predetermined path above said plane between an upper re-inking position and a lower imprinting position;

sheet feed means including a carriage, support rod means guiding said carriage in a predetermined rectilinear path above said plane, between said sheet supply zone and said sheet discharge zone and pivoted feed finger means on said carriage for entering aid register apertures to advance said sheets individually and successively along said surface from proximate said supply zone to said printing zone and thence to proximate said discharge zone;

a stationary source of ink mounted on said apparatus above said plane in said ink supply zone; an ink applicator roll, rotatably mounted on said carriage and movable therewith, said roll engaging the type on said printing head in said printing zone'and engaging said source of ink in said ink supply zone, and

drive means operably connected to said printing head support post means and carriage for actuating the same in synchronization to advance each successive sheet and said applicator roll, while moving said head to said upper position and to retract said applicator roll to said ink source while moving said head to said lower printing position.

2. Printing apparatus as specified in claim 1 wherein said feed finger means includes a pivoted finger having a tip at one end adapted to enter said register apertures and a cam follower at the other end thereof,

and said apparatus includes a double longitudinal cam track receiving said cam follower, said track lifting said tip out of contact with said sheets on the retraction stroke of said carriage, lowering said tip to below the plane of said sheets during the advance stroke of said carriage but lifting said tip above said plane while said tip advances in said printing zone.

3. Printing apparatus as specified in claim 1, wherein said source of ink is a fountain nip formed by a pair of hard faced nip rolls, a soft ink delivery roll spaced from said nip rolls, and a cam actuated, pivoted ink distributor roll movable between one of said nip rolls and said delivery roll, all of said rolls except said pivoted ink distributor roll being drivingly connected to said drive means for rotation thereof.

4. Printing apparatus as specified in claim 1, wherein said ink applicator roll is rotatably mounted on said carriage and spring biased upwardly to yield d0wn wardly thereon, and said ink applicator roll includes a gear for rotating the same, and

said printing head includes a curved gear rack, spring biased downwardly to yield upwardly thereon, said rack being in the path of the gear on said applicator roll to rotate said roll while said roll advances along the type on said head and while said head is moving along its vertical path;

whereby scuffing of said roll and over-deposit of ink is avoided.

5. Printing apparatus as specified in claim 1, wherein said applicator roll is fast on a shaft journalled in a bracket pivotally mounted on said carriage, said bracket being spring biased to lift said roll and said shaft includes a pair of smooth rolls each on an opposite side of said roll and a gear on one side of said roll, and

said printing head includes a member spring biased downwardly thereon, said member having a pair of smooth tracks thereon, each in the path of one of said smooth rolls for equalizing coating pressure of i said applicator roll, and a curved gear rack for engaging and turning the gear of said shaft to rotate said applictor roll.

6. Printing apparatus as specified in claim 1 wherein said printing means includes bed plate means in said printing zone, said means including a detachable plate in said sheet support surface, said plate having an inset surface there-in comprising a lower layer of fabric backing, an intermediate layer of resilient, rubber-like material, and an upper layer of thin, hard sheet material, said resilient layer compensating for any minor tilt of the type in said printing head.

7. Printing apparatus as specified in claim 1, plus top feed sheet magazine means in said sheet supply zone, including power means for progressively raising a stack of unconnected sheets to the level of said plane, and

a unidirectionally rotatable, friction roll means resting on the topmost sheet of said stack, and operably connected to said carriage,

whereby each successive advance of said carriage causes said friction roll to advance said topmost sheet along said plane to a location in which the register apertures thereof are engaged by said fingermeans on the succeeding advance stroke of said carriage.

8. In a printing apparatus of the type having a platform defining a path for the advance of sheets to be printed, a bed plate at one end of said platform, an ink source at a spaced distance from said bed plate, and a carriage movable horizontally along a path over said platform the combination of printing means including a printing head mounted to move along a rectilinear path normal to the plane of said platform, toward and away from said bed plate;

pivoted feed finger means, one said carriage, to feed successive sheets to said bed plate;

nip reservoir ink supply means mounted above said platform, said means forming said ink source and including an ink delivery roll at substantially the level of said printing head when the latter is in upward position and means for rotating said delivery roll;

an ink applicator roll rotatably mounted on said carriage and adapted to engage said delivery roll when said carriage is retracted and to engage said head when said carriage is retracted and to engage said head when said carriage is advanced,

disengageable drive means on said printing head and on said applicator roll, cooperable to positively rotate. said roll as it is advanced by said carriage past said movable printing head, and

drive means for moving said head and carriage along their respective paths in synchronization.

9. The method of printing a plurality of identical sheets of the continuous web, autographic register, apertured type by means of a vertically movable printing head and a horizontally movable sheet feed finger and ink roll carriage, which comprises the steps of:

moving said head rectilinearly on a fixed path between a lower printing position relative to a sheet and an upper retracted re-inking position with the type thereon spaced vertically from, but remaining in parallelism with, said sheet;

advancing said carriage toward said printing position and causing the fingers thereon to enter said apertures to feed a sheet thereto, while said head is moving upwardly, and resiliently roll-applying a thin ink coating on the type of said head while said carriage is moving along the advanced end of its path and said head is moving along the retraction end of its path,

then advancing said head to said lower printing position while retracting said carriage and its teed fingers and ink roll to a position out of the fixed path of said head, and,

then applying a thin coating of ink to said ink roll while said carriage is moving along the retraction end of its path.

10. Apparatus as specified in claim 8, plus ink distribution means, forming part of said ink source and mounted independently of said printing head on said apparatus to receive an ink coating of predetermined thickness from said ink delivery roll and transfer an ink coating of predetermined reduced, thickness to said ink applicator roll.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 343,825 6/1886 Marden 101-320 1,110,723 9/1914 Spiess 101-320 1,314,133 8/1919 Elam 101-320 1,831,113 11/1931 Hoag 101-119 X 1,990,594 2/1935 Freeman 101-316 2,848,944 8/1958 McLaughlin 101-302 3,101,049 8/1963 Hupper 101-292 3,119,328 1/1964 Pittman et a1 101-316 X W. B. PENN, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

